Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Salvia hybrida cultivar Rhapsody in Blue.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Salvia plant, botanically known as Salvia hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Rhapsody in Bluexe2x80x99.
The new Salvia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Hummelo, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new compact Salvia cultivars with numerous flowers with attractive coloration.
The new Salvia originated from a self-pollination made by the Inventor during the summer of 1999 of the Salvia hybrida cultivar Amathyst, not patented. The new Salvia was discovered and selected by the Inventor during the spring of 2000 as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated self-pollination grown in a controlled environment in Hummelo, The Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings and divisions taken at Hummelo, The Netherlands, since the summer of 2000, has shown that the unique features of this new Salvia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Rhapsody in Blue have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and light intensity without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Rhapsody in Bluexe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Rhapsody in Bluexe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Salvia cultivar:
1. Upright and relatively compact plant habit.
2. Very freely basal branching, dense and bushy plant form.
3. Freely flowering habit.
4. Blue violet-colored flowers.
Plants of the new Salvia are more compact than plants of the cultivar Amathyst.